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Your financial needs change throughout your life as well. What was important to you at 25 may not matter at all by the time you hit 50. The priorities of middle age wouldn't even have entered your mind back then. And your personal and estate planning strategies should change right along with those life stages.

When most people think of estate planning (if they think about it at all), they usually think it means making a Will. But estate planning is much more than just that. It’s a process of wealth management, strategic future planning and documentation that will ensure that your estate is distributed and your loved ones are provided for in accordance with your wishes.

Those of us who are members of the Baby Boomer generation who are still lucky enough to have one or both parents living are now facing some tough decisions when it comes to caring for our parents. It’s important to help them retain their independence and personal dignity for as long as possible, but if they are reaching a point where they cannot manage everything (whether due to physical or mental deterioration, or a combination of both), it becomes necessary to appoint someone close to them to take over those actions and decisions that they are no longer able to handle.

You remember the old adage - the only things in life that are certain are death and taxes. I assume you pay your taxes every year. But have you addressed the other part of that equation? Or are you one of those people who are putting it off because you don't want to face the certainty of your own mortality? Almost three-quarters of North American adults have not made a Will. That's a frightening statistic, when you consider the consequences of dying intestate (without a Will), and the costs that your loved ones will incur to administer your estate.

There are a few very important legal documents that everyone should prepare to ensure that their wishes are followed and that their loved ones are taken care of. One of these is a Power of Attorney. A Power of Attorney makes sure that your wishes are followed in the here and now, while you’re still alive, but can’t, for some reason, execute them yourself.

If you've ever lost a loved one, you know how difficult it can be to get through the pain and grief. Unfortunately, to add to the turmoil of this difficult time, there are also other matters that must be dealt with. If you're the executor or administrator of the estate, you will have to arrange for the funeral costs and other estate expenses to be paid, file the final income tax return, and locate all of the assets for distribution to beneficiaries. And if you're not the personal representative, whoever is acting in that capacity may need your help to perform his/her duties.

This post compares a Will to a Living Trust, explains the purpose of each one, and why they are both important components of a good estate plan.

A major concern that many people have when drawing up their estate plan is how to reduce the costs that their estate or their beneficiaries will have to pay. We all want our loved ones to reap the full benefit of our estate assets without being burdened by a pile of fees and costs being assessed against those assets. If you are a resident of the USA, you have the option of placing your assets into a living trust as a means to avoid having all of your estate run through probate, and thereby elimi...